Metabolic pathway curator position available immediately
We are seeking applicants for a full-time curator position to annotate
metabolic pathways of plants. This project is a collaboration between
Carnegie Institution and SRI International, in which plant metabolic
pathways are being curated into MetaCyc, a comprehensive,
experimentally verified metabolic pathway database
(http://www.metacyc.org/) and AraCyc, an Arabidopsis-specific
metabolic pathway database (http://www.arabidopsis.org/aracyc/).
The curator will be responsible for:
1. Researching new plant metabolic pathways, enzymes, and transporters
in the scientific literature, and evaluating, synthesizing, and entering
that information into the MetaCyc and AraCyc databases.
2. Contributing to the development of standard operating procedures for
annotation methods and to the general development of MetaCyc and
AraCyc such as adding new data types, data integration, and web page
enhancement.
3. Communicating with researchers at meetings or via email to improve
the quality of the data, train researchers in using the tools at
MetaCyc and AraCyc, and answer user questions.
4. Validating and updating computationally derived AraCyc pathways
using information from the literature.
5. Running the 'Pathway hole filler' algorithm of the Pathway Tools
software for AraCyc to assign potential genes/enzymes to pathway holes
(reactions that do not have any annotated Arabidopsis genes mapped to
them) and validating the results.
The successful candidate will work with a team of curators, software
engineers, and database developers. Successful candidates will have a
Ph.D. degree or equivalent in biochemistry or a related field, a
demonstrated ability for independent, critical thinking and iniative,
and excellent communication and teamwork skills. Experience in using
Unix and knowledge of programming languages such as Perl and Lisp are a
plus but not required.
Qualified candidates should email a resume to Sue Rhee at:
rhee at acoma.stanford.edu
